"I'm tired of all those tight little skirts and pants I have to keep pulling up to get them to cover my rear," [artist Elizabeth] Huey said as she held up several alternatives she considered more compelling. They were breezy, colorful skirts redolent of Woodstock, midnight hayrides and prom nights: the sort of thing that she once could find only at vintage stores. "Now they're everywhere," she said. "It's exciting."

Leping Pu, a 40-year-old doctor shopping at the store, was also drawn to fuller skirts. "Designer clothes have been so tight you can't put them on," muttered Dr. Pu, who wore a floral-patterned skirt that swirled around her calves. "I like something free enough to give you space to move."

Jeans once were about freedom, comfort, and affinity with the working class. I remember a period in the 1970s when young people wore only Levi's or Lee jeans and scoffed at older women who bought "designer jeans." (The brands of the time were Jordache, Sassoon, and Gloria Vanderbilt.) Lately, we've been reliving that period, with a bizarre misplaced nostalgia for things that were not considered good at the time. So I'm glad to see the hippie skirts come back. More fun, more comfortable, and better nostalgia.

16 comments:

Halo: I was offended for half a second and then got the reference. That made me remember this SNL song about too-tight jeans. And here the link for the "Jewess Jeans" spoof of the Jordache Jeans ad. That's from back when I really thought no one cool would ever wear designer jeans.

Dave: did I say designer jeans were newly popular? I said back in the 1970s they were considered uncool by younger people. And I linked to a NYT article about just how crazily expensive designer jeans have gotten and to a second article about how flowing skirts were a new thing.

I am quite happy with this development. The jeans "craze" for the past few years has been the extremely low slung jean for women. This has the unfortunate effect of making women look pudgy, because they ride below the hips; and because they are so tight, the natural shape of a woman's hip sort of spills over the sides.

As a devoted, uh, let's say "women-in-jeans connoiseur," this has been a dark decade.

There's nothing sexier than the shape of a woman's derrier in a pair of Guess jeans; except maybe a woman in a nice flowery summer dress and sandals.